


Time Of Our Lives

by orphan_account



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Case Fic, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Multi, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-04-12
Updated: 2013-05-03
Packaged: 2017-12-08 07:14:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/758567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve - being Steve - has a heart of gold and no pokerface. His cousin isn't the only one recognizing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. All The Leaves Are Brown

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Five-0 is my property. I thought it was common knowledge.
> 
> (Title from "Califorina Dreamin'" by The Mamas And The Papas.)

**Wiesbaden** **, Hessen, Germany**

Contrary to popular belief, I actually can take care of my own.

Yeah, astonishing, I know.

I even managed to talk Missus Whatsername from Child Welfare into printing out the list of possible new guardians and their files out for me. Why, yes, I'm a genius.

The list was longer than I would've expected, to be honest. There were more than my 82 years old grandma and my workaholic aunt and uncle to watch out for me - not that I couldn't do that myself, thank you very much - and eventually I got to choose between 7 people.

Option A was eliminated by the fact that she was barely four years younger than my grandma and options B, C and D lived in Greece. Which was really great, if none of them were my no conversional, violent father and I spoke at least the tiniest bit of Greek. Option E was to be found in a tiny village somewhere near Berlin and option F had been migrating to Mexico. Since neither was really great for me option G looked the most interesting. I pulled out the file of a guy named McGarrett, Steven J. out of the pile of files and started reading.

 

 **Name:**  McGarrett

 **First name:**  Steven J.

 **Date of Birth:** 11/3/1977

 **Current residence:** 2527 Pi'ikoi St,Honolulu, HI

 **Height:** 6'1''

 **Weight:**  190 lbs

 **Eyes:**  blue

 **Hair:**  brown

 **Employment:**  Lieutenant Commander, USNR, RESERVES; currently leading the Governor's police task force

 

It looked more than interesting to be honest again - I was saint-like today. I kept on reading, figured out that McGarrett seemed to be my second cousin - I remembered my grandma telling me about my grandfather's sister going to America in the 50s. Apparently she got married to some dude named Roger McGarrett, got a John McGarrett with him, who in turn married a Doris and got two kids; Steven J. and Mary Ann.

So I waited patiently for Missus Whatever to come back and tell her that I had a good feeling about this guy.

She took plenty of time and I had to wait almost 45 minutes until she finally came back again.

I told her about my not-yet decision, she smiled. Oh, great. Praise the day.

She smiled some more, said something about getting his number and wandered off again. Astonishing smart lady.

I got out of my temporary room and marched down the halls in order to catch the bus for the first time. But today was the day of bad luck which – of course – led to waiting at the bus stop for another twenty minutes.

Awesome.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Honolulu** **, Hawai’i, USA**

Steve McGarrett got up at five o’clock as usual, could be found in the water exactly fifteen minutes later and swam his usual route, back and forth, for exactly 100 times – in other words 7 miles – and was enjoying the feeling of the hot Hawai’ian sun on his skin as his mobile phone rang.

The number wasn’t suppressed, but that didn’t mean he had a clue who called him at half past seven in the morning. According to the country code someone in Germany.

“McGarrett.” He barked with the usual glee of having to answer the phone if the person calling wasn’t Danny or Chin Ho or Kono in his voice.

“Good morning, Lieutenant Commander. My name is Tim Jahn and I am with the German Child Welfare. There is a rather difficult thing to discuss with you and if you do not have the time right now I will call again tonight.”

Steve perked up, focussing on the phone instead of staring at a little butterfly trying to land on his towel.

“No, it’s alright. I have plenty of time right now. What is it?”

“Sir, have you already been informed about the accident of your second aunt?”

“Accident? What accident?”

“A few weeks ago she died in a car accident.”

“A car accident? Can you, uh, describe what’s happened?”

“Drunk driver."

Steve got hit by a major flashback, the cop’s face who had to tell them how _his_ mother had "died" in that car accident, how terrible it had been for him. He looked back at the house automatically, wanting Doris to appear in the door to the lanai and wishing she would have never come back at the same time. This Doris he didn't need. As ridiculous as it might be, he was missing his mum, the one from his childhood, cooking and reading and teaching; not the spy who was insulting Danny in every second sentence and kept playing games with everyone within eyesight.

"But worst case scenario would be Homicide, why are you calling?"

"We are currently looking for a guardian for her daughter, Alexandra. You are on the list of possible new guardians and thus we are consulting you."

Steve sucked in a breath he hadn't noticed he'd been holding.

"You can call back in a few days; we understand that this would be a big step for you so of course you can take your time. Just call back this number and tell us your decision." He rambled a number after that, said thanks and goodbye and ended the call. 

Steve didn't even recognize until he was startled out of his state by the loud beeping coming from his cell phone.

 

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Wiesbaden** **, Hessen, Germany**

As I got back to my grandma's it was already almost dark outside and I was so tired I didn't even have the willpower to stay awake long enough to change. I lay down on the couch in the living room and drifted off immediately.

I awoke at 8:39 on the next morning.

My grandma was putting breakfast onto the table in the dining room beside me, the scent of fresh coffee and toast rapidly awakening my still sleepy brain.

"Mooooooorgen.*" I yawned as I got up and sat down to grab my cup of coffee.

"Guten Morgen, Kind.**" Ack! Not again. Stop calling me that, I'm not a kid!

"Ich bin kein Kind mehr, Oma! Ich bin 15.***"

"Für mich wirst du immer mein Kind bleiben.****"

Who wants to start the day like that? I don't.

After I finished my cup of coffee and stopped chewing on my toast, I got up again and headed for the bathroom to change.

My grandma chattered to me about how her friend Peter got a new set of tyres for his car, complained about the increasing gas prices, figured out how to call her friend Anne on the new landline and told me about the incoming call last night I had missed. It had been from child welfare, but I couldn't get more out of her than that before the phone rang again.


	2. Chapter 2

**Honolulu** **, HI, USA**

"Steve. Are you listening to me?"

Steven was absent. His mind was about as far away as the JerseyShore, so he didn't even recognize Danny's arrival, let alone the fact that he had just been talked to.

"Steven."

Not this time either. Steve thought about his mother, couldn't think about anything else but her since yesterday. He wondered how different from this his life would have been if his mother hadn't been hiding for such a long time. What it would have been like to spend the whole of his childhood with your family, how-...

"Steve!"

...-it would have been to go to college in Hawai'i, to get to choose what he was going to do with his life. He wondered whether his mom had actually been sorry about it, about leaving them behind, and though he felt like an asshole for thinking things like that, there was a tiny, quiet voice that asked him if his mother hadn't been happy about the chance, the apology of Wo Fat and Mangosta and who knew who else there was to get away from him, from her family.

"McGarrett! Hello, Super-SEAL, you in there?"

Steve didn't bat an eyelash as a hand came into view, waving up and down right in front of his face.

He blamed his mother for the course his life had taken, for leaving young Mary to herself by the age of fourteen, for leaving his father like that, for making him the broken, sad man who couldn't even show his own children that he loved them, for making himself leave his  _ohana_  without a goodbye, without a second look back.

"Apparently not." Danny nudged Steve with his elbow in the ribs and Steve literally  _jumped._

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you think you're doing, huh? I just got this coffee and contrary to your belief - obviously, I should add - I do _not_ wish to spill it over my brand new shirt."

Steve blinked at him almost owlishly, shook his head in confusion and started to rasp out something incoherent.

"Where did-... Since when-... How-..."

"So you can surprise a Super-SEAL. Huh. That's great. I mean, even _you_ are still a human being. Wow. Well, to answer your questions: I came in about ten or fifteen minutes ago, went to my office, made a lot of noise and when you didn't react and forgot to social etiquette again came here to talk to you. You didn't react. Just like now."

But Steve was mentally gone again and didn't react to Danny's mocking, which was concerning Danny faster than he'd admit to anybody. Not even to himself, actually.

"Steve. What's up?" He asked after a few second's hesitation.

"I-... uh, well there is this guy, and..."

Steve made no further move to explain himself. He just stared at his feet.

"You know, if I  _ever_  hear this sentence from Grace it's still way too early."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"Okay, so what is it? I know you and I know how dangerous you are when you're so quiet."

"How much have I told you about my family?"

"About nothing. I figured out most of the stuff myself. The only things you ever said about them are "This is Mary Ann, my sister." and "Yes." as I asked you whether the woman in front of me was your dead mom."

Steve inhaled deeply three times and kept on staring at his feet as if there was a secret hidden plan written on his shoes that would reveal itself if Steve just stared at them long enough.

"My older second cousin got killed in a car accident two weeks ago."

Danny kept quiet for a while until he whispered "I'm sorry." and joined Steve with the whole looking-at-his-feet-until-the-apocalypse thing.

"Thank you. I've only seen her once, though, when I was younger. I think she was about 27 years old, so I had to be a teen... well, anyway, Child Welfare called this morning and, uh... asked whether I could... want to... be her daughter's guardian."

"And you're wondering whether to do it." It wasn't a question but a statement and Danny had to bite back the sigh threatening to escape his lips because Steve was  _still_  staring at his feet like they were the North Pole and Steve's eyes a pair of magnets.

"You wanna hear my opinion?"

"Uh-huh."

"That a yes?"

"Uh-huh."

"I will pretend it was. Do it."

Steve's head shot up and for a few seconds he stared in Danny's eyes before he remembered his looking-anywhere-but-at-Danny-tactic and stared at a point next to Danny's right ear.

"Do it?"

"Yes, do it. You won't get another chance like this. It will be like... like a symbiosis for you two. She helps you becoming more of a civil and thus sane person; you'll give her a new home. Perfect home, since you're in Hawaii and everything. She'll love it."

"You don't love it."

"I'm a stubborn divorced ex-Jersey cop who is in the eyes of this whole state married to you. I still don't love it and I hopefully never will, but it kind of grew on me." Danny felt like he just aged another 20 years and was almost old enough for retiring now but the goofy, blinding smile that crept onto McGarrett's face made it worth the trouble.

"And now get in there and make yourself useful. I'm not your personal secretary, so if you feel like blowing up things you'll have to do the paperwork related to it yourself. Chop-chop." Danny grumbled, pointing at Steve's own office.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Wiesbaden** **, Hessen, Germany**

Another day had passed without a call from Child Welfare - not that I had missed them. I just didn't like the lack of information. But this morning the phone rang again at unholy times.

"We are pleased to inform you-"  _that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and_ _Wizardry;_ I mentally completed the official's sentence.I hadn't been, of course not, but this version was more pleasant than anything the official of Welfare could even think of.

"-that Mr. McGarrett has scheduled a call tomorrow. He said it will be at 7 a.m. local time which is 8 p.m. here so I advise you to be ready and expect his call." Though I had to admit this was the closest he could get.

"Yes, Sir, I will. Thank you." I said more out of courtesy than anything else and hit the end call button.

So I had to get a hold of some patience I didn't have and wait another 35 hours to get any further with this giant mess of a clusterfuck.

Great.

I was bored - had been for the past few weeks without a break - so I sat down and started to meditate but after two hours I was about as far as I was before. So the next thing I did was studying Chemistry. I should have known it wouldn't help but I didn't and kept trying for another half hour.

After that you could write down my activities for the rest of the day like a to-do list:

-walk in the park to the pool

-swim in the pool

-run back home

-finish a book

-learn Physics

-eat

-watch TV

-go to bed

 

I awoke on 4:54 a.m. the next morning and decided that - since I still had 16 hours to fill until the call - I could as well go for a walk to try and guide my thoughts to other not less urgent things. I failed again - failed miserably, my brain deciding to play unfair and against me.

That's the not-so-good side of having an eidetic memory - sometimes I felt like my brain wasn't a part of me. Of course remembering almost everything one has ever read and most of what one has ever heard had it's upsides, no questions, but recalling things without wanting them to be stuck in your brain for the next several hours, days weeks or - worst case - months was something nobody wanted to have to deal with. It did a good job at increasing the level of freakiness you were automatically connected with in most of the people's eyes, that it certainly did but that didn't help me any.

Even my friends thought I was some kind of freak, a super-genius who knew everything. A freak in disguise, maybe, or a friendly freak but still... a freak.

So the walk turned into a jog and the jog into a run quickly. I stopped half an hour later, my asthma burning my lungs into tiny black coals, keeping my mind somewhere else.


	3. In Your Hands

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time I lent the title from Charlie Winston. Amazing

**Honolulu, HI, USA**

Danny managed to talk, rant and soothe Steve out of his painful haze by noon and after twenty more minutes and countless arm-touches and hands-on-shoulders Kono acknowledged with a half fond, half devious grin he eventually managed to convince Steve that even Super-SEALs had to eat and that a salad - if Steve still wouldn't touch a Malasada without bypass surgery - would be healthy for him in every possible way.

"So, what do you want? Lunch's on me."

"You don't have to do this, Danny. I can take care of my own."

"Stop. Stop it right there. You don't get it, you still don't get it, do you? For the last time, I know that you can take care of your own - or rather I'm technically aware that you have to be since you're still alive - but I have no idea how you do that if you only eat rabbit's food and I don't really wanna know. It's probably on a need-to-know basis only, anyway. Second: I'm also aware that I don't have to go out with you to watch you eat  _another_ of your stupid salads but I thought it was a nice, reasonable thing to do and maybe it'll take your mind off the whole adoption-thing. So, I will ask you one more time: Will you go out and eat that salad or do I have to go there myself and force it down you throat?"

Steve, looking sheepish stared at his feet again and nodded.

"That's good." Danny reached for Steve's arm again and started pulling him towards the office door, not letting go of the arm again until they reached the car.

Kono stood up, her grin still torn between fond and devious and stuck her head into her cousin's office as soon as the pair of their fearless leaders made it through the door.

"Hey cuz. How's the paperwork doing?"

"I'm starting to understand Danny's endless rants about Steve not being able to chase down a suspect without blowing something up, breaking something - accidentally - or hitting the suspect with it; not to mention stabbing, punching or threatening said suspect."

Chin had been talked into doing Steve's paperwork by Danny, who was constantly pointing to the reckless SEAL hunched in his office and complaining about why Karma wouldn't work for him and, seriously, why couldn't Steve act like a sane person and just open his mouth and actually say what was bothering without Danny having to worm every single thing out of him, and so on...

"He's definitely rubbing off on you. You start to sound just like our favourite  _kupunawahine_ *."

"Never let him know you call him that or you'll have to do this" Chin smiled back, waving his hand expressively at the piles of paper around him "for the rest of your life."

"I'll have to McGarrett-sit if he ever finds out I agree with Gracie."

"Grace is probably going to join you if he finds out she thinks so, too."

"Perhaps, yes. She's emotionally older than Steve, anyway. What about you?"

"I hate them both for destroying my Zen."

"That a yes?"

Chin just raised his eyebrows at her.

"So what are we gonna do about it?"

"Last time I checked those two Holmeses were still humans. So I'd rather "them" them."

"No. No human could ever as blind as they are. Definitely "it"s."

"Well, if you put it that way..."

"I know. I really hope there's someone out there, up there, wherever there may be to open their eyes. If they can't do it themselves."

"You know, Malia and I were the same when we first met."

"Yes, but you two got married eventually."

"Look at them and tell me they aren't."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

**Wiesbaden, Hessen, Germany**

The phone rang precisely on 8 p.m. and a low voice piped up.

"Hello, this is Steve McGarrett. Is this Alexandra Kefala?"

"Yes, it is. I mean, I am. ...Yes, It's me." Good job there, kiddo. You couldn't have said something... intelligent, could you?

"Thank God." he muttered and I had to mute the phone - manually, one hand over the speaker - to keep McGarrett from hearing my bellowing laugh. Conversations usually started better when the person at the other end of the line didn't think he was laughed at right at the beginning. I could understand that, but it couldn't keep me from laughing. I wouldn't want to talk to my grandma if I were him, too. She was a nice person, but could be very clingy and I wouldn't be able to get a hold of the phone for at least half an hour if she had answered the phone instead of me.

"So, um... Well, Welfare gave me this number so I could call you to see, uh... if you wanted to move here, y'know..." Awkward was doing a very, very good job here right now.

"Yeah, I do. They're not very talented when it comes to preparing us for this, are they?"

He wholeheartedly agreeed, his tone was all the evidence I needed.

"No, they're definitely not. Did they make you live with them or are you still with your grandmother?"

"I'm still with her, though she's going to move to a retirement home when I've found a place."

"Oh, okay. That's why you wouldn't stay with her."

"Yes. She's really nice and caring and everything, but she's also not getting any younger and has a bad knee and problems with her back and hip. My aunt would take me, but she's kind of a workaholic and lives with my uncle in a really small town - more of a village, to be honest - and her youngest kid, Aaron, who is 6 years older than me just moved out to study here like his big brother. A few of my father's sisters live in Greece, which is also not possible for me, I can barely say "Hello" or "Thank you" and the rest of my siblings here in Germany is no more than 2 or three years younger than my grandma and not nearly as fit as her. You were not only the most appropiate option but also the only one."

"Well, if that's so. What about schoool? Welfare told me you'd rather not go."

"Yeah, about that... it's not that I'm bad at school or anything but.... it's kind of hrad for me to make friends with anyone. My closest friends here took years to get used to me, to my brain and the older I get the higher the expectations of the teachers are growing. They keep scowling at me when I get an A. Which is when they're kind eough not to call me a freak right in front of the class, of course."

"Yeah, I get that, that's really dreadful. So if you wanted to come-"

"I do." I interrupted, ignoring my manners.

"-maybe we could make a compromise: You try and if you have a hard time you can stop and you'll learn at home. I can help you with maths, physics or chemistry if you need any help there, and you can join me when I go running or swimming which should be good for your asthma, from what I've heard." Did this guy seriously pull my file, too?

"That would be great."

"I go hiking every once in a while, too."

"Ok, ok, I'm in. Yes."

"So you like hiking?"

"I don't like hiking, I love it. It's my favourite activity number two."

"What's number one?"

"I might sound like a nerd - maybe I am , I don't know, don't care either - but I really love sciences. Especially natural sciences." I just hoped he wouldn't mind my experiments.

"I think we just found common ground. Danno will go crazy."

I wondered for a while who the hell Danno was, but decided that I could ask personal questions when there was time for personal questions; which wasn't now.

"So, what am I going to do now?" The question surprised me and this time I really and whole-heartedly laughed; for the first time in weeeks.

"Am I the adult? How should I know?"

"Well, I'm going to ask welfare. I'll call tomorrow again. 2030, if that's okay with you?"

I neeeded a moment to translate from military times into civilian times but then nodded happily, facepalmed as my brain sardonically told me that McGarrett may be a Navy SEAL, but even he couldn't see right through the globe and I'd have to answer properly.

"Yes, Mr. McGarrett."

"Please, call me Steve. See you tomorrow."

"Yes. Bye."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *=Grandmother


	4. Still figuring out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Title is from an Elliot Minor song.

**Wiesbaden, Hessen, Germany**

Two weeks after the phone call I stood in the entrance of my grandma's house, flight tickets in my hand and grandma around my neck. It had taken me days to calm her down, but in the end she was still right. Not that I'd tell her that. But things were happening very quickly. I couldn't believe how fast it all had happened.

But here I was, slowly prying myself loose from my grandmother and handing over my suitcase to the taxi driver. All the stuff I really needed weighed less than 14 kilos so I could even take the suitcase as hand luggage into the plane. I didn't plan on doing so, though. I wanted to get rid of the stuff as fast as I could. The rest of my books stayed with my grandma, it wasn't as if I hadn't mesmerized them a long time ago.

She would send the sciency stuff after and the novels.... well, as I said I could recite most of them while sleeping. It was rather boring to read them again and again only to get more bored with every time so I sold them on the internet. It made a nice little sum and I could definitely use some money even though my mom had been very precautios and saved 250,000€ if something happened to me. I had no idea how since we weren't rich.

I pushed the thought away as I hugged my grandma one last time and sat down in the taxi. I took in my sorrounding for the last time in a long time. I didn't want to forget my home. Having the entire neighborhood mesmerized didn't change that at all. I looked at my best friend's house right in front of my grandma's. I had known Moana and her little sister my whole life and I knew my grandma and those two were going to be the only three people I'd genuinely miss. I didn't really care about the rest of the world.

"Wohin?*" The taxi driver asked, startling me out of my thoughts.

"Zum Flughafen Frankfurt, bitte.**" I replied after a few moments.

The taxi pulled out of the street slowly, driving through the neighborhood I grew up in, to the center of the town I spent my whole life in. I knew I was going to miss is badly, but it was the only solve I could bear.

I sat in the back of the car quietly, staring out of the window. I recognized the route. I had been drinving here in another cab not so long ago.

Last summer - on my last vacation - my family had been in Italy again. We did this every year, in the summer holidays. For two weeks we would take the train to the Ligurian Coast, stay there for two weeks and then go back home. The last time there had been an avalanche destroying parts of the Goldstein tunnel so the train couldn't drive through and the was a big mess, we ended up changing trains fifteen times on the way there, arriving three hours late. The way back we changed trains five times but had to take a cab back from Frankfurt's train station to Wiesbaden because it was around two o'clock in the morning and there were no trains getting us back home.

So I sat in the back of the car, having terrible flashbacks of my last vacation and stared out of the window like an idiot.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

After half an hour of driving and barely half a minute of paying the driver I managed to get into the Airport.

I got lost after I made it to a hall, searched for the luggage counters for 15 minutes, waited in the line for 45 minutes and got lost on my way to the security check-in and whatnot again. I eventually made it there with  the help of my brain's idea of analyzing the crowd to find my way to the terminal.

I clutched my boarding pass and my passport in my hand, waiting for something bad to happen or to be arrested or just blown up. astonishingly, nothing happened at all. Okay, I had to open my backpack (seriously, a collegeblock is not very likely a murder weapon. Neither is a book or an MP3-player.) since the uniforms didn't trust a camoflage Eastpack backpack to contain nothing dangerous.

After that I went through the tax free stores, decided that the stuff there was not getting better when getting cheaper and went to search for my gate.

I still had some time left, so I got out my cell phone to send McGarrett the text. He told me to text him every once in an hour and evertime something happened but I managed to talk him into reducing that idea to every second hour. I wanted to get some sleep on the way to Newark.

_"I'm at the gate. Still waiting."_

After less than two minutes I got a reply.

_"Did you look for something in the shops? If you want something you can buy it, it's on me."_

I smiled. I couldn't help it, but this guy? How could an elite solidier trained to kill with his bare hands and probably pinkie toe be so goofy? It wasn't supposed to be physically and mentally possible.

_"Thanks, but no. I don't like the stuff they're selling here. I'm not a big fan of parfume."_

I actually loathed the smell. I was very interested in the chemical and biologiac side of fragrances but to smell the stuff always made my want to toss my cookies.

_"Right. Where is your stop? Welfare wouldn't tell me."_

Huh? Why not? Strange. On the other hand, Strange was Welfare's middle name. Technically speaking, Welfare wasn't 

_"Newark, NJ."_

I had to wait a while until I got an answer after that.

_"That's funny. You stay the over night, right?"_

What the hell? What was that all about?

_"Yes, I do. At the Hampton Inn Newark Airport. Why?"_

I was starting to get confused.

_"Danny - a very close friend of mine - is from Newark. He'll be so jealous when I tell him. Could you get something for him? Something small, like a postcard or a Springsteen CD?"_

Uh... Since when was I a mind reader? "You seem to think very highly of me, McGarrett, but that exceeds even my limits." I thought to myself, huffing mentally.

_"Sure, no thing. Anything specific? Because if he's from Jersey he'll probably have all the Boss CDs."_

Reasonable question.

_"Fair point. Wait a minute, I'll try to find something."_

The next text took more than a minute, in fact my cell phone started to vibrate as I stood up to walk to the gate.

_"He hasn't got 'The Rising' yet. I'll give you the money when you're here."_

Ok. The Rising it is. Anything else? Do you need a bag? Yes? Plastic or paper? Thank you.

_"Don't worry about that. Could you find me a music store or something near the airport, please?_ _I don't want to get lost."_

I liked New Jersey, but I didn't want to miss my flight on the next day looking for a CD for someone I didn't even know yet.

_"780 Dowd Ave. It's called 'Park 2 Go'."_

I thought about asking for a map at the reception desk as a voice disturbed my train of thought.

"Letzter Aufruf für Flug (insert your favourite number here, I forgot mine) departuring from Gate (I've already forgotten that, too)." Oops. Time had gone by faster than I had expected.

_"Gotta go."_

 

After double-checking my boarding pass, checking me for weapons for the upteenth time and smiling at me the (What is this job called anyway? Boarding-pass-checker? What kind of losers wants to do this for a living?) whatever-this-job-is-called-worker eventually let me go to the plane.

I had a window seat, and the place next to me was unoccupied. I was glad I'd have room enough to breathe. I didn't like economy and I was shy of 5 feet so I couldn't imagine how someone bigger than me (read: everyone) could stand to sit for hours without being able to move  _at all._

I fastened my seatbelt and stared out of the window as the plane was pulled out on the field. This was the last time I would be seeing Germany for years but I couldn't bring myself to miss the country. I missed exactly the same four people I already knew I'd miss and kept on not caring about the rest.

As the plane slowly got up into the air I actually enjoyed the feeling of the flight, the influence on gravity getting stronger until the plane was in the air. I looked out of the window and remembered the first time I flew, just a few weeks after the train disaster - a week in a summer camp, in Stevens Point and a few days in Madison, Wisconsin with a gruop of German teenagers.

I kept staring out of the window, analyzing the clouds and the air pressure and the speed and some more things and after a while, as the seat belt sign went off and we were allowed to turn on our phones again, I got my phone out of my pocket and sent another text.

_"I'm in the air. Another nine hours and I'll be in Newark."_

The reply came instantly.

_"I'll be sleeping then but I'll put the phon on the bedside table an turn the volume up so anything happens and I'm right awake, okay?"_

What a goof of a Navy SEAL.

_"Okay."_

I leaned back, my phone in my pocket, turned my head towards the window and for the first time for years didn't think about anything at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *= "Where to?"  
> **= "To frankfurt Airport, please."

**Author's Note:**

> *= Moooooooring  
> **=Good morning, kid.  
> ***=I'm not a child anymore! I'm 15.  
> ****=You'll always be my kid.


End file.
